Plans presented to the Russellville City Council on Monday aim to provide a safer thoroughfare between Arkansas Tech University and downtown, Public Works Director Michael Oakes told The Courier on Tuesday.

Oakes presented proposals for the project to the council during Monday’s special meeting, where aldermen voted unanimously to transfer $100,000 of surplus funds from a renovation project on South Detroit Avenue to be used toward hiring a consultant to design the El Paso Avenue project, bringing the total amount available for the consultant’s hire to $200,000.

The proposed plan calls for a 60-foot right-of-way between Parkway Drive and E Street, which would include two 12-foot traffic lanes, and on each side a 4-foot planted buffer, a 5-foot bicycle lane, a 4-foot amenity zone and a 5-foot sidewalk.

From E Street to L Street, the plan calls for a 76-foot right-of-way, which would include the same features as the 60-foot right-of-way and an 8-foot rain garden on both sides of the road.

The cost of the project is estimated at $2.1 million.

“Our master planners call it a ‘town-to-gown’ connection, making kind of a symbiotic relationship between downtown and the university,” Oakes said.

Oakes said the proposal aims to make a downtown area that, in time, will have more amenities for students and will also provide them a safe and fairly-rapid access to the area.

“Some students ride bicycles around and some students do a fair amount of walking from one place to the other,” he said. “And El Paso is not exactly an attractive route for them to use, so as amenities develop in the downtown area, and as the street is available for their use, we hope there will be a lot more communication between the university and downtown.”

Oakes added the property value of businesses and homes in the El Paso corridor may rise once the renovations are completed.

“As streets become more attractive, property values tend to be enhanced,” he said. “The properties themselves become more desirable, and you might find more commercial investment in the route, and that’s one of the things that can often result from projects of this kind.”

Day Brock, co-owner of Brock’s Dog House, a hot dog restaurant on El Paso Avenue, said if the city goes through with the proposal, she would expect to see more customers.

“If people are using that road a lot more because of better access, then it should increase our business,” Brock said. “Hopefully this will help Tech students use El Paso more and maybe they’ll see us more.”

Brock said her a lot of her business comes during the day from nearby workers in the downtown area, and she would like to see an increase in nighttime activity in the area.

Dennis Martin, owner of Opal Mae’s Cafe, said the El Paso renovations are a good idea, but he would like to see more done with the downtown area itself.

“It might bring more people down this way,” he said. “But if they want to promote downtown, they should work in this area, not just adjacent areas. But it’s a good idea.”

The tentative proposal for the El Paso Avenue renovations comes after the Walker Collaborative designed a concept plan for downtown Russellville based on ideas presented by the public at the collaborative’s Design Charrette in January. Wade Walker, head of the Walker Collaborative and a consultant with Fuss and O’Neill, the engineering firm the city is using to design the El Paso plans, will attend the Russellville City Council Finance Committee meeting on April 10 to address the committee.